Hidden Sugar in Kids’ Foods

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I read the label on the bottle of chocolate milk and saw that it had 22 grams of sugar. That can’t be good.

Suggestions:

1. Look for cereals with less than 5 grams of sugar per serving. Better yet, go with homemade oatmeal or porridge (Lisa’s suggestion!)

2. Look for canned fruit packed in water or rinse out your syrup packed fruits.

3. Low-fat peanut butter. Lots of peanut butters have tons of sugar. (I actually go with the natural peanut butters myself and make sure there isn’t any added sugar.)

4. Skip the flavored yogurt and go for plain and put in your own fruit.

5. No fruit leathers. They have corn syrup, artificial flaors and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils which should be avoided.

2 comments

  1. There is a lot of hidden sugar in foods, including in vanilla yogurt (I’m assuming you were talking about yogurt in #4.) Do plain yogurt and add your own maple syrup/honey/sugar if you need to sweeten with more than just fruit, it will still be significantly less sugar than in the flavored yogurt.

    Also, don’t do low fat peanut butter (or low fat anything!) When they take the fat out, they add sugar to make up for it. And low fat peanut butter has all sorts of unnecessary and unhealthy stuff to make up for the removal of the peanut oil.

    As for low sugar cereal – your best and most nutritious bet is to make some plain old oatmeal (or whatever porridge you prefer.) With quick cooking varieties, using slow cookers and/or making a huge batch all at once, it can be nearly as quick as pouring a bowl of cereal, far better for you, and even more tasty. You can add nuts, seeds, raisins, fruit, cinnamon, vanilla, a little honey/maple syrup to satisfy your sweet tooth, butter. Do salt and pepper and parmesan cheese if you want it savory instead. The options are endless.

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